Death's Head: Epoch Rising
by wickedmetalviking1990
Summary: unofficial sequel to "Revenge of the Master" and Part II of the Death's Head prequels. The 11th Doctor meets a human with the ability to manipulate time and suddenly begins premature regeneration. Does the Empress of Time hold the only answer? Can this mysterious new face save the Doctor from the coming of the Reapers and their darkest master? Rated T for language and violence.
1. Epoch Rising

**(AN: New _Doctor Who_ came on, it was surprisingly better than I had anticipated [Oswin, aka. Mary Sue Dalek, wasn't as mary-sue-ish as i feared she would be: hell, she didn't even accept the Doctor's offer to travel with her with doe-eyed wonder like most of the other companions save for Donna. But she did say she'd be back for the next episode, oh well: I might start to like this strange person after all.)**

**(Any way, that all pales into utter insignificance since we're back in this semi-sequel to _Revenge of the Master_, set as a cross-over with the _Prince of Persia_ and with my own original story the _Death's Head_. _Doctor Who_ and _Prince of Persia_ don't belong to me, _Death's Head_ does, though. I've had a hell of a time trying to get that story flying, one of the seven pilot stories is floundering on _Fiction Press_, in case you're interested in checking it out [Death's Head: Angel of Darkness], and since this particular story was inspired by "The Parting of the Ways", I thought it best to make this pilot a cross-over with our favorite Timelord. Now hold onto your fez because anything can happen in the Doctor's world!)**

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**Epoch Rising**

The Doctor and River Song stood in surprise at the entrance to the TARDIS. The man who stood before them was clad in black, with raven black hair hanging loosely upon his shoulders. His skin was darkened like those of the desert people, and he wore a short beard. For a moment, the Doctor thought he saw a faint glimmer of golden light in the man's eyes.

"_Salaam_, Doctor," the man greeted with a smile and a courteous inclination of the head.

"How did you get in here?" the Doctor asked, reaching for his sonic screwdriver.

"I've been trying to find you for almost a century now," the man replied. "You're a hard man to find, especially when your tracks seem to disappear after you have made them."

"Disappear, what do you mean 'disappear?'" the Doctor asked.

"You don't know?" the man asked. "You're dead to the universe."

"I know that much," the Doctor replied. Then his tiny eyes widened with realization. "Wait, _I_ know I'm dead to the universe, I saw it happen, I made sure it happened, but how do you know?"

"You remember, Doctor."

"I do?"

"Someone has been erasing your tracks, Doctor," the man said. "Something happened in the future, now you've disappeared from almost every historical record." He looked over the Doctor's shoulder. "Your woman might know something."

The Doctor turned about, but saw that River Song was gone. He sputtered for a moment, then turned back to the newcomer, whom he scanned with his sonic screwdriver. He read the results, then shook the device, re-scanned the man in black, then re-examined the results.

"Human," he said in disbelief. "And yet...not quite." He looked at the newcomer in shock.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid, disciple of the Prophet and bearer of the burden of God."

"Impossible," the Doctor exclaimed. "The real Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid died almost two thousand years ago, as of 2012. You, on the other hand, seem quite alive and well to me. I ask you again, who are you?"

"I thought you would have the answer for me, Doctor."

The Doctor paused. "You say you're from the past, but there's something odd about you. Your cells are constantly regenerating, repairing themselves, some of them are over a thousand years old, and yet you don't look a day past thirty. And that glow, that golden light I've been seeing in your eyes, it reminds me of..." He paused again, then walked over to Faruuk and glared him down.

"Rose." he said.

"I know not of what you speak," Faruuk replied.

"Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf," the Doctor began. "God of infinite time and space."

"You mean Zurvan," Faruuk stated. He then reached into his bosom and pulled out an old scroll, which the Doctor took from his hands and rolled out before him. Before his eyes, he saw the words translated into something he could understand.

"You," the Doctor said, handing the scroll back to Faruuk. "You're the author of the Seven Scriptures."

"Seven what?"

"This manuscript, I recognize it," the Doctor said. "I've seen these markings somewhere else before, but I can't make out when or where." He walked about, thinking and rambling to himself for a moment, then turned back to Faruuk. "Still, it doesn't answer my question: how did you, Faruuk ibn al'Mayhiid, an esoteric warrior-scribe, manage to jump through time and enter my shi-ahh!"

The Doctor was suddenly interrupted by a violent spasm of pain piercing through his body. He lurched forward, gripping at his right heart. Faruuk came to his side, hand on his shoulder and helped him over to one of the rails of the TARDIS.

"No, no, I'm fine!" the Doctor brushed off.

"You certainly didn't look fine," Faruuk replied. "What is it?"

"This? Oh, it's nothing, just..." the Doctor halted, his beady eyes growing as he touched his right heart, then quickly his left heart as well.

"What is it?" Faruuk repeated.

"This can't be good," the Doctor said grimly. He held up his hand, which, to his shock and great concern, was glowing with soft golden light.

"What is that, Doctor?" Faruuk asked. "What does it mean?"

"I'm...regenerating!" the Doctor replied with great alarm.

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**(AN: Oh noes, whatever shall happen? Lol, there's always peril of epic proportions in_ Doctor Who_, so, while thinking about how this story could be just a bit more dramatic, I put the Doctor in this!)  
**

**(Please review, they're very welcomed.)**


	2. Island of Time

**(AN: Well, already we have one follower. So I guess we're getting something right.)**

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**Island of Time**

The Doctor ran to the main console in the center of the TARDIS, hand still clutching his chest. Behind him walked Faruuk, a look of surprise on his face at this sudden revelation as the Doctor began throwing levers and pressing buttons.

"But what does that mean?" Faruuk asked.

"It doesn't make any sense..." the Doctor heaved. "This...this wasn't supposed to happen, but how?"

"How? What's happening?" Faruuk asked again.

"I'm a Timelords, Timelords regenerate," the Doctor explained in one rushed breath. "At the end of each life, we transform into a different form. But this isn't supposed to...wait, I...I remember." His tiny eyes exploded. "I _did_ regenerate, multiple times over my own time-stream. I changed my own past. My second incarnation regenerated into my fourth incarnation and my fourth into my ninth, which changed everything that happened in the past as it's now part of _this_ time-stream, which means I've..."

"What?"

"I've been killed an additional nine times," the Doctor said in fright.

"So?" Faruuk asked.

"So Timelords only regenerate thirteen times," the Doctor replied. "And I'm in my eleventh regeneration. You do the math, I'm...ah!" He fell to the floor of the TARDIS.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Faruuk asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor said. "I've never had this happen before. Although..." He dragged himself onto his feet and pulled a lever. The TARDIS lurched, then stabilized as the whirring sound of the brakes ground on endlessly as the pylons in the center console pulsed up and down.

"There! That should buy me some time," the Doctor said. "I've created a temporal sphere around the TARDIS. Anything that happens in here can exist independently of the main time-stream." He touched his chest. "Ah, that's better. Regeneration process has halted. Of course, it comes with a price."

"What price, Doctor?"

"Oh, nothing," the Doctor shrugged, adjusting his bow-tie. "We just can never leave the TARDIS. Once I step outside of the sphere, _they_ will come for me."

"Who? The Reapers?"

"Yes, the Rea..." the Doctor turned about, eying Faruuk with a suspicious glare in his beady little eyes. "How do you know about the Reapers?"

"There's a legend, Doctor," Faruuk began. "A legend from before the time of the Prophet, may Allah bless him. In the days when my ancestors worshiped the _efreet_ and _djinn_, there was a beast who was called the Guardian of Time."

"Yes," the Doctor said grimly. "But he was destroyed. He couldn't have been a Reaper because they can't be killed. Nothing in the entire universe could harm them."

"Because they are bound to Time itself," Faruuk replied. "Which means the legends were wrong. The great beast was not destroyed, it could still be out there. It could come for..."

"Please, no more foolish superstitions today," the Doctor said. "You're looking at someone who's defeated the Devil, sent whole armies running at the mere mention of his name, single-handedly destroyed all the Daleks and the Timelords. I am the Doctor, plain and simple. Ooh, that was cool. I like that, I shall have to use that more often."

"So, then, Doctor," Faruuk continued. "What shall we do?"

"'We?'" the Doctor asked. "You know, I'm still trying to figure out exactly how _you_ should even exist."

"What do you mean?"

"You're older than you look, your cells are constantly regenerating," the Doctor began. "You know things that no human should know, to say nothing of a human from the 6th century. Besides, you're still alive. Reapers can't be stopped, so if you know about them, that means they're still after you. Once they're stopped, their memory is erased from the minds of those who have witnessed them. In short, you, Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid, should not exist! And yet you do."

"I am sorry if I have offended you," Faruuk replied. "I have only come here to ask a question of you."

"And you transported yourself inside a living TARDIS," the Doctor continued. "How exactly did you..."

But he paused, for he saw something on Faruuk's hand. Well, it wasn't exactly _on_ his hand. More appropriately it was around his hand. A haze of golden light, like his own regeneration energy, was floating off of Faruuk's hand and going into the TARDIS. Suddenly a lever was pulled without anyone pulling it and the TARDIS lurched again. Faruuk and the Doctor lunged about, grabbing onto whatever they could get their hands on before they lost their footing. At last, as suddenly as it had begun, the TARDIS stopped. The Doctor ran to his console and began examining the readings.

"Why? Why? Why? What are you doing this to me?" he argued to the consoles. "We can't be nowhere! That's impossible, especially after they were all destroyed." He turned over to Faruuk and pushed one of the read-outs over to him on its extendable neck. "See for yourself. The TARDIS read-out shows that we are no-place in no-time. But that is impossible, yes, I know, and yet here we are."

"I say we go outside," Faruuk said, walking towards the door.

"Wait wait wait!" the Doctor exclaimed, bounding after him. "_That_ is a horrible idea. We have no idea what could be out there. If either of us steps out of the temporal sphere..."

"Have faith, Doctor," Faruuk stated. "My burden was given to me for a reason. I have yet to see what that purpose is."

"Well, that's all well and good for you," the Doctor replied. "But I'm not exactly a man of faith myself. In fact, I've killed more so-called gods than James T. Kirk _and_ Jean-luc Picard all together!"

Faruuk said nothing, but walked to the door and opened it. To their surprise, beyond the TARDIS' door was an island paradise, upon which stood a large palace built in the ancient fashion of Sumeria. Faruuk stepped out first, but the Doctor remained inside the TARDIS, scanning the area with his sonic screwdriver.

"That's strange," he said. "No time, no place, and yet..." He stepped out onto the sand just outside of the TARDIS' door, then spun on his heel, hands in the air, a laugh on his lips. "Haha! No time and no space means I'm not out of time-stream. Regeneration has been halted, thankfully. Now..." He scanned the surrounding area once again. "If we are no place and in no time, why is there so much...stuff all around?"

There was a beach with tall palm trees and only stones about the beach. The Doctor walked out first, scanning everything with his sonic screwdriver. Behind walked Faruuk, who seemed quite unaffected by the surroundings as opposed to the Doctor. Before them, at the edge of the jungle, the Doctor saw a great stone stairway leading up to a high place, on top of which stood the palace. With sonic screwdriver out and scanning everything, the perplexed Timelord led the way, with Faruuk looking at the strange one in wonder.

"Strange," the Doctor continued, speaking aloud and yet more to himself than to anybody in particular.

"What?" Faruuk asked.

"You ask quite a lot of questions," the Doctor replied, turning around. "That's good. I always ask questions, it makes things interesting. But the main question is this place. There's quite a lot of...stuff here."

"Stuff?"

"Trees, plants, sand, stone, flowers, there's air filling our lungs," the Doctor began in his usual rambling way, then paused to take in a deep breath through the nostrils. "Mmm, lovely air. And there's a building up there, ancient Sumerian, looks like. One of the oldest human civilizations, well, at least the oldest on record. All records of Atlantis were destroyed, that was me. Anyhow, there is stuff here, and yet..." He turned around in a three-hundred-sixty turn, his screwdriver whirring. "...there's nothing here. No trees, no plants, no sand, no stand, no flowers, not even air to be breathed."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Faruuk asked.

"There you go again with the questions," the Doctor said. "You said you had a question for me, something you wanted to ask. But you've asked quite a few questions already. I'm not taking any more questions, not until _I_ get some answers first! Where are we?!"

As if in reply to his command, the sound of doors opening was heard high above their heads. They looked up, seeing only an evening sky filled with clouds. They then cast their eyes up the flight of stairs and saw a light at the top. With a giant stride, the Doctor bound up towards the stairs, sonic screwdriver out and flashing. Faruuk did not run after him, but simply watched him run up to the top.

At the top of the stairs, the Doctor saw a pair of doors thrown open that led into a wide hall of stone lit with torches and a great fire in the center. He ran through the doors into the empty hallway, then suddenly came to a halt, tiny eyes bulging and mouth hanging ajar, when he saw someone standing directly in front of him.

"For a Timelord," Faruuk said. "You certainly took your time coming here."

"How did you get up here?" the Doctor asked. "You certainly couldn't have run faster than me, I didn't see you overtake me."

"I was up here for almost two hours, Doctor," Faruuk replied. "I opened the doors and found someone you would like to meet. She said she wanted to speak to you in particular."

"_She?_" the Doctor asked. "And what about you? How did you get up here?"

"I moved," Faruuk said, as though there were no simpler answer.

"Moved, how did you move? How could you simply move through time and space in the blink of an eye?"

"I move through time and space," Faruuk began. "That is one of the...entitlements of my burden."

"Doesn't seem like much of a burden," the Doctor said. "Being able to move through time and space on your own. I have to use a TARDIS, and she's not always that reliable."

"Still," Faruuk said. "You should meet this person."

"Right," the Doctor replied, adjusting his bow-tie and following Faruuk down the long, empty hall. Faruuk walked first to a pair of great doors and pushed them open. Behind him, the Doctor paused, a hand sliding up to his right heart. For a moment, it felt like a sort of twinge, like something had burned a hole through him clean in half. "Not again." he murmured, but said nothing else.

In the other room, the Doctor and Faruuk passed through into something rather lavish-looking, with long tapestries hanging from the ceiling in colors of red, blue, purple and gold-thread. At the farthest end of the room, they saw something or someone sitting on a golden throne beneath a canopy of crimson velvet cloth. When they came to the center of the room, the Doctor halted, a look of surprise and shock on his face.

"Doctor?" Faruuk asked. "What's wrong?"

"We're on the Island of Time," the Doctor said in an amazed voice.

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**(AN: Lots of stuff happening [hopefully], and I have to tell it in ten chapters!)**


	3. The Last Ones

**(AN: Here's an interesting take on a classic _Prince of Persia_ character, based on her own dialogue in _The Two Thrones_ and a little bit of her behavior in _Warrior Within_. I guess, since I pretty much said so in the last chapter, you know who it is.)**

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**The Last Ones**

"Hello, there!" the Doctor spoke up suddenly, practically leaping in front of Faruuk to place himself before the person on the throne. "Nice to meet you at last, heard so much about you. I am..."

"Silence!" a woman's voice cried out. From under the canopy, a figure walked down the stairs to meet them. It was a woman, clad in scarlet robes that barely contained her thighs and breasts. Faruuk averted his eyes and even the Doctor, Timelord though he was - and married at that - loosened the bow-tie about his neck.

"I know who you are," she said. "You're like me."

"Yes, I would say so," the Doctor said with a wiry smirk. Spinning on his heel, he turned to Faruuk. "Please, don't bow. It's just the Empress."

"Just the Empress?" the woman asked incredulously.

"Alright, you are _quite_ spectacular," the Doctor replied, his tiny eyes rolling. "One of the ancient Timelords. Many think you were a legend, like Omega. And may I say, I'm rather surprised to see you."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "And just who are you, by the way?"

"I'm the Doctor," he replied.

"I don't remember you," the Empress stated. "I think you are a fraud."

"Why?" the Doctor asked. "Because I'm not dressed in crimson robes with a big golden fan-y thing on my back?"

"You behave like a child," said the Empress. "Not as a son of Gallifrey."

"You know how our regenerations go," the Doctor said. "The old dies, a new one walks away. You would have loved my first incarnation."

"Doctor," Faruuk spoke up. "You're starting to ramble."

"Yes, I know, I do that quite often," the Doctor said in an aside, then turned quickly to the woman standing before him. "I've read the stories about you, yet they always said you were lost in the Orion Nebula and never returned."

"Yes," the woman said with an annoyed tone. "They're never trust-worthy, are they?"

"What aren't?"

"TARDISes," she replied.

"Yes, but you had a Type-7 TARDIS," the Doctor continued. "That's like comparing the Wright Brothers' airplane to a Skorn battle-cruiser. I have a Type-40 TARDIS, much better."

"Good," the woman said with a smile. "Then you will take me from this planet and return me to Gallifrey at once."

The Doctor's smile fell, his tiny eyes betraying sadness and grim realization.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," he said slowly and with sorrow in his voice.

"You _will_ obey me!" the Empress demanded.

"I can see why you chose the name Empress," the Doctor said with a mirthless smirk.

"Her name is Kaileena," Faruuk whispered.

"What!" exclaimed the Doctor, turning first to Faruuk and then back to the Empress. "You told them your real name? Since when are we on first-name bases with non-Timelords?"

"I never told _anyone_ my name!" the Empress seethed.

"'Told' being the operative term," the Doctor said, then turned back to Faruuk. "Obviously it hasn't happened yet. How did you know something that hasn't happened yet? Oh, that's not important. Please, just shut up until I need you. I don't need you violating the time-stream by giving away future events." He then spun about on his heel to the Empress. "Sorry, my mistake."

"I tire of your games, Doctor!" the Empress replied, now standing before the Doctor, glaring menacingly at him with her blue eyes. "Now take me to Gallifrey this minute!"

"I can't..."

"You _will!_" she repeated.

"No, you don't understand," the Doctor replied, his frustration rising. "I can't take you back because it's not there!"

"What did you say?" the Empress asked.

"Exactly what I said," the Doctor stated with grim finality. "It's not there, it's gone. Destroyed."

The Empress looked shocked and aghast at this revelation. The Doctor looked away, afraid of the inevitable question she would soon ask. To his surprise, the next words she said were completely unexpected.

"But you survived," she said. "And you have a TARDIS. You can take me away from this world!"

The Doctor then felt a finger tap his shoulder. He held up his index finger to the Empress, asking her for a moment, then spun about and addressed Faruuk.

"She can't leave," he said.

"Why not?" the Doctor asked.

"I know the future," Faruuk said. "She has to die."

"And why is that?" the Doctor queried. "According to history, she died almost a million years ago when she was lost in the Orion Nebula."

"Do not name them!" the Empress shouted.

"Who?" the Doctor asked, spinning back around to her.

"The _djinn_ who inhabit the desert world in the nebula of Orion," the Empress began. "They attacked my TARDIS, forced it to land on this backwards rock and then tore it apart."

The Doctor's eyes exploded. "But that can't be good. Even the weaker TARDISes had massive temporal energy in their hearts. Even one being torn apart could cause a temporal rift that could unravel the fabric of reality. Are you saying that this has already happened?"

"No," the Empress shook her head. "I knew that something would happen, so I made sure that I could keep them from destroying everything."

"And in the process," the Doctor continued. "You were left without a TARDIS and no way of getting off this planet."

"You mean you were responsible for the _djinn_ and the _efreet_?" Faruuk spoke up.

"I did not give you leave to speak, monkey!" the Empress said to him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the Doctor said, stepping between the Empress and Faruuk. "He's called a human and he's in my charge."

"You would put one of _them_ before your own people?" the Empress asked in incredulous shock. "Though we are the only ones left?"

"Yes, I would," the Doctor retorted, equally as menacing as she had been earlier. "You know, if you ever do get off this planet, you should ask what's left of the races who have hurt those in my charge: Daleks, the Sontarans, Cybermen, the Silence. You know, on Skaro, they called me the Oncoming Storm, at least they _did_, until I got erased from the memory of every last surviving Daleks. I wonder how she did it, souffle girl..." He spun around to Faruuk. "In fact, now I'm wondering what _your_ secret is, Faruuk!"

"Doctor, take me away from this place now!" the Empress demanded, though the Doctor noted that her voice was now urgent rather than demanding. "Before..."

Suddenly, the sound of something heavy pounding against a door was heard. All three pairs of eyes turned to the great iron doors, where the noise was coming from. One by one they stepped back, as though they all knew exactly what was coming and what it meant to each of them. _Boom!_ It pounded on the door again and the Doctor collapsed backward, crying out and clutching at his hearts. With great effort, he pushed himself back onto his feet.

"Run," he said to those behind him. "Run!"

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**(AN: And so it begins!)**

**(Reveal a little bit, keep more for later. That's how this story shall go, just as _Death's Head: Angel of Darkness_ is going on _Fiction Press_. Please go check that out, you just might enjoy it...which now gave me another sub-plot for this story. I've got at least two or three going on, but I think ten chapters are enough to flesh out each one individually. Once again, review!)**


	4. The Doctor's Greatest Fear

**(AN: I have an idea about a cross-over of _Doctor Who_ and _Lord of the Rings_. It would include the new companion. What do you think?)**

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**The Doctor's Greatest Fear**

The Doctor took off running, then noticed that Faruuk was missing. He looked around this way and that but saw no sign of Faruuk. But he did see something else: the door was starting to crumble and the Empress was walking slowly instead of running.

"Oh, right, I forgot," the Doctor said, casting his eyes on her ample bosom. Taking her hand, he dragged her after him as they passed down a winding tunnel.

"Where does this lead?" he asked.

"The gardens," the Empress replied. "Wait, why are we going to the gardens?"

"We need water," the Doctor said. "Lots of water. That's the only thing that can slow this creature down."

"The Reaper," the Empress stated. "The..."

"No!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Do _NOT_ ever say that name! That name must never be spoken, just like my own. Now hurry, before it reaches us."

Suddenly, the tunnel exploded behind them. The Doctor cast a look behind his back and saw nothing, a darkness that reminded him of the Nightmare Child. With a cry of alarm, he ran as fast as he could, dragging the Empress behind him. Suddenly the tunnel collapsed again, but this time there was only rock behind them and something else.

"You!" the Doctor shouted. "What exactly are you doing here?"

"Hurry!" Faruuk retorted. "That won't hold him for long."

Faruuk shot off first, leading the two of them onto a balcony which led into the gardens. The sound of pursuit, however, had seemed to cease behind them.

"We won't be safe for long," Faruuk said.

"Tell us something we don't know," the Empress replied.

"We have to get back to the TARDIS," the Doctor said.

"But _that_ is not supposed to be here," Faruuk said. "Not yet, at least. How did it come here?"

"It's trapped here in the past, on a planet that's seventy percent water," the Doctor began in his usual rambling tone. "We can't let it get to the TARDIS or off the planet at all. It would eat the TARDIS, unmake reality, and that's just the least it could do!"

"But the Reapers can't be stopped," Faruuk stated.

"This thing is something else," the Doctor continued. "Like Elphaba Thropp: mean-tempered, cynical - brilliant, I'll have you know! But even I couldn't reason with her, same thing as this thing. Something about you, Empress..." He turned to the crimson-clad Timelord. "...has altered its DNA. Tell me once again what happened when your TARDIS crash-landed here."

"Take me back to Gallifrey, now!" the Empress demanded.

"You know, you're in no position to be demanding anything of me!" the Doctor retorted, speaking in an authoritative tone. "You're talking to the Timelord who destroyed Gallifrey. Burned it up in an inferno that destroyed every last Timelord and every last Dalek, well, most of them, but it _did_ get all the Timelords. A bad day if ever there was one but there's nothing left to go back to!"

Faruuk and the Empress were silenced by the Doctor's explosive statement.

"Do you see now?" the Doctor asked. "This is severity of our situation. I have sent armies running at the mere mention of my name, destroyed all the Timelords and the Daleks, killed more gods than Friedrich Nietzsche, been to Demon's Run and back, caused the Big Bang..._twice!_ And now I'm up against an enemy I can't reason with, something I can't burn like Gallifrey, or say 'I don't believe in you' and make it disappear, the worst of the Reapers, the Guardian of Time. I had thought the fallout from the Last Time War had destroyed him, but he was hiding somewhere, somewhere even time couldn't reach him. Nevertheless, I am your only hope..." He held out his arms, a smile on his face. "...and I've got nothing." Dead silence.

"Ha! I've never felt this way before!" he chuckled. "Still, improvise!"

"I think I might know," Faruuk stated. "Here, hold my hand."

"Not until you answer a few of my questions!" the Doctor demanded.

"I've told you already," he said. "I bear the burden of God, the gift of manipulation of time."

"What do you mean, manipulation of time?" the Doctor asked. "Did Rose Tyler put you up to this?"

"I exist as part of time," Faruuk said. "Past, present, future, I live as they live. Time flows through me."

"Time can't flow through a human," the Doctor laughed. "It would burn your mind. Believe me, I saw it happen."

Faruuk plucked a flower from one of the plants in the garden and held it up before the eyes of the Doctor and the Empress. To their surprise, they saw the petals fold in and turn into a tiny green bud. Then the bud unfolded into a flower, then shriveled and died and turned into dust. Faruuk brushed the dust out of his hands.

"That is quite a trick," the Doctor said. "But it doesn't explain how 'time flows through you.'"

Suddenly, Faruuk placed his hand on the Doctor's chest. Before their eyes, he was enveloped in a flash of golden light. When the light faded, a middle-aged man with crooked teeth, protruding eyes and curly brown hair appeared. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white bag.

"Would you like a jelly baby?" the Doctor asked, then he eyed the bag. "How did that get there? Oh yes, now I remember: I told myself I would need them further down the..." He then turned to Faruuk. "And what the devil do you ca..." Faruuk's hands twitched and the fourth incarnation faded into a haze of golden light, replaced by an almost bald man of similar age with dark, shaven hair, blue eyes and wide ears protruding from the sides of his head.

"...that?" the ninth incarnation asked.

"Time flows through me," Faruuk repeated. "I can create bubbles where time moves slow or fast."

"That explains the door," the Doctor said. "And why you suddenly disappeared. You moved time around yourself, moving faster, passed us by and opened the doors for us. But the tunnel?"

"I eroded the stones of the ceiling," Faruuk said. "Bringing it down on the beast."

"Fantastic," the Doctor chuckled. "Now, uh, about this?" Faruuk put his hand back on the Doctor's chest, and he was devoured by golden light. When it faded, a bespectacled, thin young man with short, spiky hair was standing there, his large, brown eyes protruding from out of his skull.

"Wibbley wobbley timey wim..." the Doctor began. "Why does that keep happening? Every time you touch me, I...I was in the middle of a sentence! I was-I was recording a message for Sally, the angels!"

"Time moves..."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," the Doctor continued. "But what does that _mean_? Am I moving backwards through my own personal time-stream each time you touch me? That would explain why I vanished when I offered Leela jelly babies." He looked at his hand. "Ha! I still have them!" He stowed then back into his pocket. "So how about another nudge in the right direction?" Faruuk touched the Doctor's chest, the Timelord was enveloped in golden light, and once again the wavy-haired, eyebrow-less Doctor was staring back at the anomalous Arabian with his small, beady eyes.

"I am the Doctor and _you_ are the..." the Doctor began, then his right hand slapped himself across his large chin. "Right, already did that. But I remember everything."

"I can't affect your memories, only your place in time," Faruuk said.

"Wait, something's different..." the Doctor said, feeling his hearts. "My...the painy wainy is gone. You sent me back a few regenerations, which off-set the premature regeneration. Ha ha! Good as new! Now about you, Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid, how did this happen?"

"That is a long story," he said. "And we don't have time."

"We have a TARDIS," the Doctor said. He turned to the Empress. "Fancy a ride in the TARDIS?"

"Get away from me, murderer!" she seethed.

"You said you wanted to get away from it all?" the Doctor asked.

"I would sooner take my changes with the Dahaka."

"NO!" the Doctor exclaimed, throwing his hand over the Empress' mouth. But it was too late. There was an explosion and they knew, almost certainly, that it had come for them.

"Run!" the Doctor shouted.

"Where to?" Faruuk asked.

"The TARDIS!"

* * *

**(AN: A little bit of a reveal, but not too much. Faruuk's character, actually, was inspired by the _Doctor Who_ episode "The Parting of the Ways", which is why the Doctor asked if Rose Tyler put him up to this. Speaking of which, does that make Zurvan from _The Two Thrones_ something of a proto-Bad Wolf?)**

**(Please, review, make comments, anything! Suggestions, questions, fears? I'm gonna watch the new _Doctor Who_ episode as we get one step away from finding out who MSD, also known as Clara Oswald, really is.)**


	5. Sins of the Doctor

**(AN: Have you ever wondered if maybe the people the Doctor "helps" end up being worse off because of it? Like in _The Rings of Akhaten_, he destroys their god [which looks like a sun], so why is that good? Wouldn't that mean that the planet just ends up freezing to death, becoming a cold, lifeless world, killing everyone around it, because the Doctor says so?)**

* * *

**Sins of the Doctor**

"Hello, beautiful!" the Doctor exclaimed as he ran his hands along the outer casing of the TARDIS. Behind him, Faruuk led the Empress after him. For the moment, all was quiet, as though they had finally escaped capture. The Doctor removed his keys from one of his pockets and pushed in the TARDIS door. As a gentleman, Faruuk let the Empress enter the TARDIS first and then went in himself. However, the doors suddenly slammed shut on his face.

"Doctor?" he asked from without. "Your...uh, time-machine has...closed its own doors on me."

"Come on!" the Doctor shouted at the TARDIS console as he threw a switch. "This is no time to be moody, he's safe, isn't he?"

There was no answer, but the shower of sparks that erupted when the Doctor threw another switch told him that the TARDIS wasn't going to be opening the door for Faruuk.

"Okay, maybe not safe," the Doctor replied. "But I'm not safe, and you let me in all the time, eh? Come on! We need a quick getaway!"

"Doctor!"

"Oh, bugger it," the Doctor sighed, removing his sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the doors. They flew open and Faruuk tumbled into the TARDIS. The Doctor, meanwhile, was already at the doors, trying to pull them open before a mass of darkness flowed inside. For a moment he halted, gazing at the mass, his beady eyes wide with fear.

"Close the doors, Doctor!" the Empress shouted.

As if snapped out of a trance, the Doctor slammed the doors shut, ran over to the main console, and threw another switch. The whooshing of the TARDIS' engines roared as time and space shifted around them.

"Is it gone?" the Empress asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied. "Let's take a look." He walked over to the doors and threw them open. They were not on Earth, that much was certain. Instead, they were on a dark world, darker than midnight. Even through the TARDIS' atmospheric shield, they could sense that, beyond, it was colder than the coldest ice. It was a dead planet, bereft of life, its sun long since dead.

"Well, it seems like we've shaken him off," the Doctor shouted back, then he suddenly gave out a cry of alarm. A figure in ragged clothing jumped onto the Doctor, tackling him to the ground. He was on the floor of the TARDIS, this ragged thing on top of him, hands seizing the Doctor's neck and squeezing for all that was left. Calmly, Faruuk approached the creature and held out his hands. A golden light appeared and the thing recoiled from off the Doctor, its hands bent backwards on itself. Suddenly, Faruuk's hand started moving towards the center console of the TARDIS.

"No!" the Doctor shouted. He seized the Arabian's hand and pulled it away from the TARDIS' console as quickly as possible, then pushed him against the wall.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"That thing was going to kill you," he replied calmly. "I aged its hands so they could be of no harm to you."

"No, I mean that," he said, pointing back to the TARDIS. "Didn't you see? Of course you saw, you were _this_ close!" He held up two fingers a hair's breadth apart.

"What?"

"You were _opening_ the TARDIS!" he whispered. "That's never been done before, not since..."

He paused, turning instead to the creature. It wore a hood and a gas mask over its face. He tossed back the hood and then removed the gas mask. Beneath the mask was a young woman, with dirty fair skin and dark hair that was so greasy, it looked as though it had never been washed in years. It was her eyes that drew the Doctor: they were white, yet the center was so dark it looked as though her pupils dominated the entirety of the corona. Human enough, but the Doctor looked human, or so humans said, and yet he was not, and neither was this poor girl.

"Alarica," the Doctor greeted with a smile. "How are you? How have you been? How's your mum and dad?"

"Don't talk to me like that," the girl replied.

"What?" the Doctor chuckled. "It's only right, a polite greeting between friends."

"'Friends?'" she asked, trying to rise to her feet but her hands could not push her up and she fell back down with a cry of pain. "We are _not_ friends, Doctor."

"Well, I can see that," he replied, rubbing his neck. "You tried to kill me."

"As we should have done years ago," she returned.

"What happened to you, Alarica?" the Doctor asked. "You were only, what, five? Five years old! So alive, so inquisitive, you had your whole life before you? What brought you to this?"

"You did, Doctor," she said. "You did."

"What is she talking about?" the Empress asked.

"Oh, sorry," the Doctor spun about. "Empress, Faruuk, this is Alarica. Alarica, Faruuk, Empress."

"She said you did something to her," the Empress said.

"No, of course I didn't," the Doctor replied. "When I left Albios, she was alive and well."

"Who is she?" Faruuk asked.

"I am all that's left," the young woman replied. "The last of my people, and not even the best of them at that."

"It's because of her eyes," the Doctor said. "The Blind Ones of Albios, they're called. A near-Timelord race, born blind, it gives them fascinating mental powers, psychic, telepathic, you name it. She was born with the ability to see, so obviously she was considered some kind of evil omen. Typical superstitious stuff."

"Is that what you said, Doctor," Alarica asked. "When you destroyed my people?"

"What is this, Doctor?" the Empress retorted. "Killing people? First your own kind, then the Daleks, now the blind ones?"

"No, no!" the Doctor retorted, holding his hands up in a gesture of defense. "I didn't kill anyone! She was going to be sacrificed to their sun god. I set her free!"

"And doomed us all!" the woman said. "You destroyed our sun. When you left, we were plunged into darkness. Nothing could bring back the sun, no prayers, no offerings, none of your...science. We were lost, forever, in the darkness. Then it grew cold and so many died: a planet of almost eight billion people, dead in less than a day. Some of us went underground, in search of the fabled burning core of our world. My parents took me with them, until..."

"Go on," the Doctor said with wrapped attention.

"Until they froze to death," she said. "The farther down we went, the cold only followed us. When they knew the end was coming..." She paused, her eyes brimming with tears. "...they...cast off their warm clothes. Forced me to wear them. They told me that I was the heart and soul of their people...that I had to keep on living...for them...for all of us!" She broke down into tears. The Doctor, however, remained in place, moving not even a muscle.

"I set you free," he said grimly. "I opened your eyes to the truth, it was your responsibility..."

"Responsibility?" she cried. "How were we to survive without our sun? Can't your precious science explain how we could have survived without light, without warmth, without life?!"

Faruuk walked over to the woman, knelt down at her side and placed his hands on both of her wrists. There was a momentary flash of golden light, then her hands could move. He stepped back and she rose again to her feet, though her eyes were ever on the Doctor.

"You're with him?" Alarica asked them. "What happened to the others? The red-head and the frowning boy with the big nose. Did you destroy their lives as well?"

The Doctor said nothing, but his lips quivered at the accusation.

"You should run," Alarica said. "Run and don't look back. Don't be fooled by his lies and promises. He's dangerous."

"I'm dangerous," the Empress replied. "And so is Faruuk."

"He's a worse kind of danger," she continued. "He comes to you in the guise of a friend, offering comfort, support and understanding. Then, when you're vulnerable, he will feed you his lies, pretend that he knows what's best for everyone, then...he will destroy your world, leaving you nothing but ashes." Alarica then turned to the Doctor, who was idly walking about the TARDIS console.

"Look at me!" she shouted. "See what you've done! Eight billion people murdered."

"I've killed trillions," the Doctor said without even so much as a glance in Alarica's direction.

"Is that it?" she asked, sounding horror-stricken. "It all means nothing to you? Destroy a few billion lives, no big deal. Just another day in the life of the Doctor? Do you have any pity for the lives of all those you have slain? Are we nothing to you?"

At that moment, the TARDIS gave a sudden lurch. The door, which was still open, flashed with a sudden golden light. Then, suddenly, the light went out. Blackness filled the TARDIS' door.

"Faruuk!" the Empress shouted. "Close the door!"

But he was nowhere to be found. The blackness was coming towards the TARDIS console and the Doctor looked at it in horror. From out of the darkness, tentacles appeared and wrapped themselves around Alarica's body. First the arms, then the legs, until she was being dragged out of the TARDIS, screaming at the top of her lungs and trying desperately to save herself. It was in vain, for the darkness consumed her and she vanished within its depths. The TARDIS doors closed, and they saw, standing behind the door, was Faruuk, a shocked look on his face.

"What just happened?" the Empress asked.

"You let her die," Faruuk said, approaching the Doctor with an angry look in his eye.

"I couldn't save her," the Doctor said. "There was no other way."

"You lie," he replied. "She was proof."

"Proof of what?"

"Proof that you were wrong," Faruuk said. "And you let her die, that no one know of your failure. That's why you ran, isn't it? From Gallifrey, all those years ago. You saw something you didn't want to see, something you refused to believe, and instead of facing the truth, you fled from it. That's why they call you the Lonely god, the man who runs always, never looking back, too ashamed of what he has done."

The Doctor approached Faruuk slowly, anger and suspicion brewing in his tiny blue eyes.

"Just who are you?" the Doctor asked. "How do you know about Gallifrey, about my past?"

"Time flows through me," he replied.

"No!" the Doctor shouted. "No more of these vague, religious kind of answers. I deal in facts and the facts are that you are an impossible human being. Yet you exist, how is that? How can you do the things you do?"

"I have given you my answer," Faruuk said. "I bear the burden..."

"Of a fairy tale," the Doctor replied.

Faruuk reached out and touched the Doctor's chest. There was a flash of golden light, and when it disappeared, the Doctor was still standing there. Suddenly he cried out and fell to the floor of the TARDIS, clutching his chest.

"My hearts!" he groaned. "What have you done?"

"I restored your temporal abnormality," Faruuk replied coldly.

"For speaking my mind?" the Doctor asked, rising to his feet. "Oh, how so like your kind."

"You let her die," Faruuk repeated.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked. "I saw her, just now. That..._thing_, it grabbed her."

"That was my fault," Faruuk said grimly. "I saved her from you and brought this death upon her."

* * *

**(AN: Oh, the Doctor, merrily prancing through time and space, destroying whatever he pleases, always running from the consequences. But even if you erase every trace of yourself from the universe, that would also include your temporal trace, which would mean going back on your own time-stream, which means mega-paradox. Imo, the past is the past and it still stands, even if the recently past is being erased. Someone _has_ to still know about him.)**

**(And, of course, this deepens the mystery of our main character. What exactly did he do and why did he do it?)**


	6. Sanction

**(AN: Once again, people speak of the audio dramatization of _Doctor Who_ - aka. Sir Not Appearing in My Local Library. Honestly, there's nothing of that sort in my area and I'm in the US. And don't say "oh, well what can you expect, it's the US?" because that proves my point that the UK has become what people think the US is: arrogant little fellows who think they're the center of the universe.)**

**(Hmm, I don't know, when I hear the Doctor telling Astrid Pith that he has nothing, he just goes about the universe at his own free will, or that oft-repeated phrase "The Doctor, the man who keeps running, never looking back, because he dare not, out of shame", yeah, leads me to think that he does just go about the universe, blowing up planets, killing the odd trillion people here and there and thinking nothing of any consequences or responsibilities. But that's just me, I'm going through a mid-fandom crisis as far as _Doctor Who_ goes [and I've only got two stories under my belt.)**

**(Okay, one more rant before I continue. To me, the Doctor is how he is in "The Christmas Invasion". Humans end up on alien radar, they try to fix things themselves, _they_ _fail_, and then the Doctor shows up and saves the universe with an apple. In the latest season, the one with Clara [aka. mary sue dalek], the Doctor is more of the Companion to Clara's adventures because about 8 times out of 10, _SHE_ saves the universe and himself in the process and the Doctor is just there to act silly. As far as my stories go, I'd like to think that I try to put the Doctor in instances where he can't just do a quick fix [like in _The Doctor's Star Wars_, _Revenge of the Master_ or the upcoming _The Doctor and Clara in Middle Earth_], but has to use his own smarts and cleverness to come out victorious and, yes, his companions are helpful. Hell, I gave Rory, Amy and River lightsabers, for Pete's sake! I won't give any spoilers for _The Doctor and Clara in Middle Earth_ because River Song is holding a sonic blaster to my head [she fixed it after _Revenge of the Master_] and I really don't want to be killed by a psychopathic killer.)**

**(So instead, here is the next chapter.)**

* * *

**Sanction**

The TARDIS rumbled again and it was then that the Doctor remembered into what predicament they had fallen. He ran to the console, threw a switch and held on for dear life. The whirring of the TARDIS thundered throughout the main chamber as the Gallifreyan space-time ship left Albios behind and returned once again to the nowhere place called the Island of Time. The Doctor ran back to the door and threw it open. From here they could see the island, but below their feet, many hundreds of feet down, there lapped the waves of the ocean.

"There," he said. "That should buy us some time." He then closed the doors and turned to the Empress. "Alright now, start talking."

"You are in no position to give _me_ orders, Doctor!" the Empress retorted. "I am the oldest Timelord present, therefore _I_ decide who talks first!" She turned to Faruuk. "Human, speak. What did you mean you tried to save her?"

"Time flows through me," Faruuk began, but the Doctor held his hand out.

"Enough of this 'time flows through me' nonsense!" he shouted. "That's impossible. The last time that time flowed through a human's head, Rose Tyler almost died, I had to assume the time vortex out of her and into myself, horribly painful business, forced to regenerate. In short, no human is capable of having time flow through themselves, not even Timelords."

"You lie!" both Faruuk and the Empress said at once.

"Aha!" the Doctor exclaimed, turning to the Empress. "You I can trust. You won't try to deceive me with all this 'burden of God' nonsense. You'll tell me straight on, right? What did you do? Why is _he_ chasing you?"

"I have no idea what you mean, Doctor," the Empress said.

"The beast!" the Doctor said loudly, waving his fingers about before the Empress' face. "All...tentacly wentacly, like Yog-Sothoth or old Hermaeus Mora. Funny guy, old Herma-Mora. Would you like to hear about the time I had tea and scones with Hermaeus Mora?" His right hand then slapped him across his protrusive chin. "Ow! Yes, needed that. Now! Back to the beast, all tentacly wentacly. He only goes after extreme temporal paradoxes, and he's after you. Why? Why is he after you?"

"I am not bound to answer to you, Doctor!" the Empress retorted. "Not before you answer my questions. You said that you destroyed Gallifrey. All of our people destroyed, slaughtered. And _you_ are the only one left? Why? Tell me why! I demand to know why!"

"Well, unlike you," the Doctor began. "I will actually tell you why. Do you remember Rassilon?"

"Rassilon?" the Empress asked, a smile appearing at the corner of her lips. "Yes, I knew him well."

"Yes, well, forget everything you knew about him," the Doctor said. "Time War, Daleks versus Timelords, epic battles, the Nightmare Child, the Deathsmiths of Goth, the works. Bad day, all of it. All these horrible Could've Beens, Neverweres and Meanwhiles running about Gallifrey, creatures from alternate realities. You know I fought almost two dozen versions of myself from these various alternate realities on the ground, in space. Horrible stuff! Anyway, Rassilon proposed a little something called the Ultimate Sanction. Pretty much create a paradox so big it would tear time and space apart. The Timelords would survive, though, as beings of pure conscious thought. Only problem was that I couldn't let that happen."

"So you betrayed your own people?" the Empress asked, crossing her arms across her bosom. "For _humans_?"

"Not just humans," the Doctor began. "All the things in the galaxy, don't you see? These things, the inhabitants of this universe, they're not like stones and trees and-and rocks, well, actually that's not true. Some trees and rocks _are_ like them. Atoms, yes! Atoms, atoms. Tiny little atoms, electrons spinning around a nucleus in infinite inner space, unfeeling, unknowing, uncaring. That's not what they're like! They have their lives, their troubles, their worries, waking up at seven o'clock in the morning, going to work, having a cup of tea at eleven, weddings, births, funerals, all these little important things. You see? It's not like how they taught us about mortals back on Gallifrey, all that about their insignificance, the meaninglessness of what they do, matter in motion. That's how I saw the universe when I first left, but then...but then I went out there and I saw it and I saw just what it was and how much there was and all these little, apparently insignificant things that are so important to them." He sighed, a smile splitting his face. "Then I saw that it was all worth it. That there's no such thing as an insignificant life."

"That's quite a heavy-handed speech," Faruuk spoke up. "Especially after you let Alarica die."

"Shut up!"

"No!" Faruuk interjected. "I was there, I saw it all happen."

"Saw what happen?" the Empress asked.

"I took pity on her when I heard her story," he began. "The Dahaka appeared and she was taken."

"Yes, yes, we saw that," the Doctor interjected. "Now please get somewhere without saying his name again!"

"And I went back," Faruuk continued. "I took her to a safe place, all of you. But it followed us again, and as the shelf crumbled away, you stood there and watched her die while..._that_ thing kept me from doing anything. I tried almost a hundred times over and every time she died, and you never lifted a finger to help her."

The Doctor stared him down with stern reprimands in his small, beady eyes.

"Do you see now?" Faruuk asked. "I have seen the outcome of a thousand time-lines, and in each case, the results have always been the same. What you propose for my people must _never_ be."

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked suspiciously. "Who are you? You say over and over that time flows through you, you defy all logic and reason, your cells are so old, you should have crumbled into dust a thousand years ago and yet-and yet you exist!"

"You will know the truth in time, Doctor" Faruuk said calmly.

"I want to know now!"

Suddenly the TARDIS lurched forward. The Doctor examined the controls, but saw that it was still hovering in place over the Indian Ocean. Regardless, they were still moving. The Doctor then opened the door and looked out. Below, on the island, was a small black hole, from which came the dark tendrils of the beast, the one whose name Faruuk had spoken of previously. The Doctor's beady eyes exploded in fear.

"No! No!" he shouted. He ran to the TARDIS' console and started pulling every lever and turning every knob. There was no response, save for the occasional shaking and shuddering of the TARDIS as it tried to pull away from the might of the Beast. The Doctor collapsed as he felt his left heart failing. He looked up at Faruuk and the Empress once at a time.

"I want answers!" he shouted again. He pushed himself up, leaning on the main console and pointed at each of them in turn: first at the Empress and then at Faruuk. "You, tell me why it's after you! And you, my good man, tell me why I should die! Why do I deserve to die? Is it because I don't believe in your god? Tell me now!"

Suddenly, the TARDIS came to a halt. As though all light had passed through a sieve that had eroded the color from the world, everything they saw became dark, grainy and gray. Color seemed to vanish from out of existence. The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the door, which closed. There was suddenly a pounding upon the door that shook every inch of the TARDIS. The lights went out, drowning them in complete darkness.

"_etaf ruoy teem dna tuo emoc, rotcoD!_" a deep, menacing voice growled beyond.

"Something's wrong," the Doctor said nervously. "The TARDIS' translation matrix isn't translating what it's saying. What's it saying?"

"_htrof emoC! htrof emoC!_" the voice demanded again.

"Well, Doctor?" Faruuk asked. "What will you do?"

The Doctor turned around, gritting his teeth against the pain in his chest, then straightened himself up. He screwed up his grimace into a dauntless smile and straightened his bow-tie.

"Go out and say hello," he said.

* * *

**(AN: Stuff is happening, lots of stuff. I'm glad some of you have been following and enjoying it.)**

**(Next chapter it hits the fan as the Doctor comes face to face with, you guessed it.)**


	7. Ouroboros

**(AN: Thank you for the review. One more mini rant before I continue: yes, I am aware that _Doctor Who_ is more blatantly atheist than _Star Trek: TNG_. I don't agree with that, but I won't alter the Doctor's character for the sake of my story or my point. Obviously he has no place in a story about the _Death's Head_, which I had envisioned since 2004 as having our heroes [Faruuk being one of them] literally fighting off the hordes of Hell. Furthermore, though in "Voyage of the Damned" the Tenth Doctor says that he "had the last room" in the original Christmas story and that made me want to take him to 1st century Bethlehem where he has to choose whether to let the infant die [because of aliens] and change history "for the better", even though it's a fixed point, or allow mankind to grow on its own, yeah, I'm just not feeling that as far as _Doctor Who _goes.)**

**(Yes, I mentioned one of the daedra from the _Elder Scrolls_ series, which I don't own [neither do I own _Doctor Who_ or Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth or _Prince of Persia_]. Yes, it is bending the rules [but then again, Satan appeared in "The Satan Pit", so...], but Hermaeus Mora doesn't really demand worship as much as the other daedra/aedra do and rarely makes public appearances except in the incident involving Miraak. And yes, before you throw the lore-book at me, I am aware that the Third Doctor said he was thousands of years old, but the one that is most repeated is the one from the 21st century _Doctor Who_, where he's 900ish going on 1000s, which is the one I go with in my stories.)**

**(Nevertheless, we've got an interesting reveal coming up [I've been laying it off for the last chapters, as with _Angel of Darkness_, for dramatic effect].)**

* * *

**Ouroboros**

The TARDIS had been dragged onto a stone shelf on the island. Standing before it was a great mass of darkness, with reaching arms holding the blue box in place. The door opened and the Doctor stepped forth. Out of the darkness a shape appeared, dim at first but slowly growing more and more discernible by the Doctor's tiny eyes. It was man-shaped yet very tall: at least seven meters. It was completely black, save for two eyes that glowed white in the colorless world which the Doctor could discern. Upon its head were two horns, curving in opposite directions that formed a lemniscate, the symbol of infinity in every tongue, including Gallifreyan. It stood silently as the Doctor approached it, waving up at it.

"Hello, Azhi," he greeted.

The Reaper leader said nothing, but eyed the Doctor in such a way that both of his hearts quivered under the beast's glare.

"Doctor!" Faruuk shouted from behind. "What are you doing?"

"Listen," he said, eyes on the Dahaka. "I know you're one of the Reapers, the big bad time police, who fix paradoxes in the time-stream. But I'm not your enemy. I keep the time-stream secure, I keep fixed points intact, I..."

The beast roared, interrupting the Doctor with its ground-shattering bellow.

"Doctor, run!" the Empress shouted.

"_devomer eb lliw uoY!_" the Dahaka said, its eyes turning to the Empress.

"What did he say?" the Doctor murmured.

"He wants me," the Empress replied.

"Why?" the Doctor asked, turning to the behemoth. "She's not a threat to the time-line. She..." He spun about to face the Empress. "Or are you? Are there things you haven't told me?"

"I don't have to answer to you, traitor!" the Empress sneered. "You sided with these monkeys against your own people!"

"These monkeys are humans!" the Doctor retorted. "I told you the truth, all of it. I want the same or else..."

Suddenly a black tentacular arm reached out from the Dahaka and seized the Empress by the throat. The Doctor saw something moving towards him, but then hands were wrapped around his shoulders and he was pulled backwards into the TARDIS.

"What the hell...?" he asked.

"Quickly!" Faruuk shouted. "He moves faster when time is slowed."

"Who? You mean _that_ thing?" the Doctor thumbed back over his shoulder towards the door of the TARDIS.

"I'll be able to move you back to that point," Faruuk said. "But you need something to fight off the beast."

"But what?" the Doctor asked.

"The Water Sword," Faruuk said.

"I don't carry weapons," the Doctor replied.

"You go into the heart of the dangerous universe without a weapon?" Faruuk exclaimed incredulously.

"Wait! I know!" the Doctor exclaimed. He then seized Faruuk's hand and took off down one of the TARDIS' halls. Left, two rights, down a flight of stairs, three rights, two lefts, and then the Doctor opened a door and led them into a room cluttered with many things, both ancient and modern. As they were walking into the room, Faruuk bumped against something that looked like a crib with a miniature solar system floating above it.

"Yes, yes, yes," the Doctor said excitedly, as he pawed through the contents of a table. He drew out an umbrella, which he opened, closed, then tossed over into a pile of random things. He then pulled out a small cylindrical thing that blossomed a beam of emerald light from its end about a meter long.

"Tempting, but no," the Doctor mused, shutting off the blade and throwing it about.

"What is this place?" Faruuk asked.

"A kind of Room of Requirement," the Doctor said, as he returned to the pile. "For the odds and ends I've picked up in the past thousand years or so."

"Hurry, please!" Faruuk urged. "There's no time!"

"Oh, wait! Here's something!" the Doctor exclaimed, pulling up a small paper bag. He pulled something orange out of it. "Mmm, jelly babies. He said I would need these later on." He tossed the gelatinous sweet into his mouth, and his small eyes doubled in size as a smile split his face. "Yes, now I know! Something gushy, something yummy, something..." He reached onto the table and pulled out a yellow toy water pistol.

"A water gun?" Faruuk asked.

"Exactly," the Doctor said, stowing it away in his pocket. "And how do you know about water guns? And don't say that time flows through you!"

"I've seen the past and the future," Faruuk replied.

"I don't believe you," the Doctor said.

"Frankly, Doctor, I don't care whether you believe me or not," he stated. "Take my hand."

The Doctor touched Faruuk's hand and suddenly he saw the TARDIS spinning all around him. When it all stopped spinning, he saw that he was standing on the shelf, and the Dahaka's arms were reaching out to seize the Empress. With a triumphant cry, the Doctor took out the water pistol and fired at the Dahaka. It recoiled as though it had been a human struck by lye. It dropped the Empress with a roar, retracting its tentacles back into itself.

"Excuse me!" the Doctor shouted. "We're talking here! I don't care if you _are_ the chief of the Reapers, I am the Doctor and I _will_ talk!" He walked over to the Empress. "Now tell me."

"Never!" she retorted.

"_hguonE!_" the Dahaka roared, then stamped its foot on the shelf. It suddenly gave way, breaking beneath their feet. The Doctor was free-falling, as he had on the Christmas of 2009, in the last days of his tenth incarnation. Suddenly he felt a hand seize his jacket and there was a flash, and then darkness enveloped his world.

* * *

**(AN: Yes, cliff-hangars! I have been eager to do one since _The Dragonborn and the Lioness_, so I decided to put one here since I promised there would be none of those [yet] in _The Dragonborn and the Lioness._ But the big reveal is coming up, and it will be awesome!)**

**(I hoped you enjoyed the little references to "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" and the Doctor's "Room of Requirement", as I called it [don't sue me, JK Rowling]. I also featured Seven's umbrella, a lightsaber from _The Doctor's Star Wars_, jelly babies and the water pistol from "The Fires of Pompeii".)**


	8. Eye of the Vortex

**(AN: "Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I tell you...they are wrong. It's more of a big ball of wibbley wobbley...timey wimey...stuff." But what if it were both?)**

* * *

**Eye of the Vortex**

When the Doctor opened his eyes again, darkness was before him. For a moment, he thought he was alone, dead and on the verge of regenerating again when he remembered that he had used up his regenerations and would be dead. So then why wasn't he dead? He held out his hand and then realized that he was lying on nothing. No glass, no force field, no semi-permeable membranes: he should be falling and yet he was lying in place. Slowly he pushed himself onto his feet and closed his eyes in fear, thrusting his hands over his eyes. From near at hand, he heard a familiar voice.

"Open your eyes, Doctor," Faruuk's voice said.

"No!" the Doctor returned. "No, I'm not supposed to be here!"

"Why?" he asked.

"I know where we're at!" the Doctor cried. "This is the entire reason I left Gallifrey the first time! I can't see it, I...I won't see it!"

"You won't die," Faruuk's voice replied.

"It's not death that I fear!" the Doctor stated.

"Do not be afraid, Doctor," Faruuk began. "I am not."

"But you can't be!" the Doctor argued. "This isn't possible! Humans can't look into the Time Vortex, it would burn their minds up! Timelords can go insane from the things they see here!"

"What did you see?" Faruuk asked.

"I ran," the Doctor said. "I ran and I've never looked back."

"Then there is no better time than now to open your eyes," Faruuk said.

Slowly the Doctor moved his hands away from his eyes, and then these slowly opened. Before his eyes he saw a wall of golden light, with thin, fiery white veins streaking and entwined throughout the wall. It looked more beautiful than the glistening rings of Anso or the sapphire falls of Midnight. The walls of light were not only made of the fiery white veins, but each vein seemed to be interconnected and interlaced with each other, weaving a tapestry so beautiful that even the Doctor's eyes welled with amazement.

"Wibbley wobbley timey wimey..." the Doctor breathed. He looked down at his feet, and saw only darkness beneath him. "Wait, what's that beneath our feet?"

"This is Time," Faruuk said. "Beyond past, present and future, I exist here and time..." He held out his hand to one of the strands. "...flows through me."

"No, don't touch anything!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Those lines, are they...what I think they are?"

"The time-streams of every being past, present and future," Faruuk replied. "They are all linked together in the great tapestry of existence. But this one..." He touched the vein with his fingers and the Doctor flinched behind him.

"What have you done?" he asked.

"I have corrected your time-stream," Faruuk said. "You are no longer a temporal paradox."

"Am I supposed to thank you?" the Doctor asked. "This is too much power, the ability to control everyone's fate, everyone's outcome, knowing what will happen before it does."

"That is my burden," Faruuk replied. "I exist in every time-stream." He pointed up and the Doctor saw that what he thought had been a wall was a tunnel of the interwoven time-streams leading up to a small, star-like bright light above them. "There it is, the beginning of time. We are free-falling, Doctor, slowly but surely, into the void below." He looked down at the darkness, which was pulsating, both closer and farther away at off times.

"We can stay here if you like, Doctor," Faruuk continued. "Time does not flow here, neither backwards nor forwards. We can stay here for a thousand years and never grow a year older. Imagine the secrets that could be learned here."

"It's tempting," the Doctor said. "But, unlike you, I am not burdened by knowing everything, well, I am, but I am also given the luxury of seeing how it turns out from beginning to middle to end. I like that, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

For a moment, all was silent. There was no sound in this plane beyond time, the Eye of the Vortex. All the fiery veins flickered and burned around them, slowly but surely, and time moved on around them, yet it moved through them as well. Yes, in this place of solitude beyond past, present and future, the Doctor and Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid were timeless, unaffected by the passage of time or the decay of nature. Though the Doctor would never believe it in the years thereafter, for one moment, time moved through him.

"I envy you, Doctor," Faruuk said at last. "Yes, it is a sign of weakness, admitting this truth, but in this place, I will let you know the truth. I envy that you exist in a plane where time can move and life is a surprise."

"Well, it isn't for me," the Doctor said. "Only sometimes. Nevertheless, there is something I would like to ask you before we leave."

"What is that?"

"Show me the Empress's time-stream," the Doctor said. "Specifically, all of her possible futures."

"She is dead, Doctor," Faruuk said grimly. "I could not safe her."

"But there's a chance, isn't there?" the Doctor asked. "One chance, a dreadful, awful, horrible and completely hopeless chance, but a chance nonetheless!"

"I..." Faruuk paused. "If I show you, I would endanger both of us. This all around you? This is how I see time, in a way that my mind can comprehend. If what you say is true and that no human can truly see the Vortex and live, I could die...and with me, time itself would be unmade! My death would create a universal paradox, one that would be so great that not even the Dahaka could repair the damage!"

"Show me," the Doctor insisted.

"Would you indeed risk all of reality for her sake?" Faruuk asked.

The Doctor paused for only the briefest of moments before he answered. "I would risk all of reality for you."

Faruuk sighed, then held out his hands into the vortex. Several entwined white lines appeared before him and he waved his hands among the veins. His hand then came forth, glowing with golden fire, and touched the Doctor on his temples.

* * *

**(AN: Another cliff-hangar! I'm almost done and it's going to be awesome! Don't forget to review! Wow, I got through a whole chapter with no rants, lol.)**


	9. The Most Promising Future

**(AN: If anyone has ever played _Prince of Persia: the Two Thrones_ and watched _Doctor Who_, you can probably see where I'm going with this chapter. This came to me pretty much upon rehearsing in my mind the lines from _The Two Thrones_ and seeing, as only I can see, the strange parallels between _Doctor Who_ and _Prince of Per__sia_. Originally this was going to be much weirder, involving River and Captain Jack, but then I saw it as a good way to get Faruuk's part of the _Death's Head_ saga off to a good start.)**

* * *

**The Most Promising Future**

The fall had been eternal. From the breaking shelf to free-fall through time, the Doctor and Faruuk were once again falling. But in that one moment, time went backwards. The shelf was reformed and the Doctor, Faruuk and the Empress were once again standing on solid ground. The Dahaka loomed before them, anger seething in its empty white eyes.

"Excuse me!" the Doctor shouted. "We're talking here! I don't care if you _are_ the chief of the Reapers, I am the Doctor and I _will_ talk!" He walked over to the Empress. "Now tell me."

"Never!" she retorted.

The Doctor spun about, pointing his water pistol at the Dahaka. "Don't you even try it!"

"_akahaD eht sepacse eno oN!_" the beast roared.

"Is that so?" the Doctor asked. "Aha! Yes, didn't think I understood you, eh? Well, as it turns out, Faruuk rewound time at the precise moment you cast us into the abyss and I heard your words the proper way. So '_hguonE!_' because the proper phrase for 'Enough!' Clever, really. But once again, the Doctor comes out on top. I escaped you, proving you to be a liar. Furthermore, feel, come on, I dare you! Reach out with your noodle-y appendages and feel me! I am a paradox no more!"

The Dahaka growled at the Doctor.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly. "Did I rob you of your lunch?" He then turned to the Empress. "Now, seeing as how I've put the Dahaka at bay..." He spun about, water pistol aimed at the beast. "One move and I swear I will use this!" He then turned back to the Empress. "Now, how about some answers?"

"Your trickery means nothing," the Empress replied. "I will never tell you!"

"Why is that?" the Doctor asked. "Because I killed all the Timelords, making the two of us the last of the Timelords? Or what about your little stunt that caused this island to become a negative zone? You lied to me: the _djinn_ didn't destroy your TARDIS, you self-destructed it to keep it out of their hands."

"How do you know that?" she asked aghast.

"Wibbley wobbley timey wimey," he smirked, tapping his nose with his forefinger. "Nevertheless, an explosion that large couldn't be allowed to simply destroy reality, so you released it on the _djinn_, as a final weapon against their arrogance. You created the Sands of Time, an abomination that allows mortal races to tap into the Time Vortex and manipulate fixed points at will!"

"It was my only choice!" she argued. "I could not be responsible for destroying reality, not at the hands of those damn _djinn!_"

"Of course not," the Doctor said. "You acted on instinct in a crisis, using the best knowledge you had. Other people would have simply let their exploding TARDIS wipe out the world, like Rassilon or the Master. Nevertheless, as we are the only two in existence, I've decided to be strangely forgiving. However, I can't take you with me."

"Why not?" she asked.

"You created the Sands of Time," the Doctor continued. "Using nothing but your TARDIS' temporal energy and the _djinn_'s bodies. But not only did you forge the _djinn_ into the sand monsters, you also bound them in yourself. The Dahaka would follow me to the ends of the universe if I let you follow me, and then imagine all the paradoxes I cause on a daily basis. He would probably devour Rory, considering that in _one_ universe he didn't exist. True, we restarted the universe, but that might not change much for the beast."

"Then what would I do?" she retorted. "Why am I even listening to the words of a traitor?!"

"Because that traitor is your only hope," the Doctor answered. "Because I've looked into the future and have something for you." He leaned in and whispered something into her ear. When he moved back, her expression softened.

"Yes," the Doctor continued. "A dreadful, awful, horrible and completely hopeless chance. You may ask yourself why: why would I let this come to pass? The one who killed all the Timelords for the sake of humans bringing about the death of so many of them, likely more to follow, an Empire reduced to rubble, a Prince cast to the streets and hunted like a common criminal?" He smirked. "Well, what do you think?"

The Empress sighed. "Is it even possible?"

"You tell me," the Doctor replied. "You made that little blue dagger, maybe you can find a way to use it to do what Rassilon could not. Perhaps not an Ultimate Sanction, but a trial run, maybe. See the billions of worlds out there, hmm?"

"_hguonE!_" roared the Dahaka.

"Run!" the Doctor shouted.

The ground beneath them started to shake and they started to run, but to their surprise, the dark tendrils of the Dahaka came after them. As if that were not surprise enough, the TARDIS took off and started to fly away.

"No!" the Doctor cried out. He and the Empress skidded to a halt at the edge of the shelf, just as, behind them, the Dahaka was lumbering closer.

"_raen si dne ruoY!_" the beast threatened ominously.

"Come on!" the Doctor shouted, drawing out his sonic screwdriver. There was a tone and a flash, and then suddenly he could see the little blue box spinning out of control towards them. "Yes!"

But then the Dahaka appeared before them again, its white eyes glowering down at the Doctor. With an angry roar, it sent its tendrils out to seize the Doctor and the Empress in one swoop. Then, just as swiftly, there was a flash of golden light and the Doctor's small, beady eyes exploded as he saw something else held in the clutches of the Dahaka.

"Faruuk!" he shouted.

"Go!" the Arabian ordered. "Run while you still can!"

"No!" the Doctor retorted. "Enough people have died at my hand! Today no one dies!"

"Just go!" Faruuk shouted again.

Suddenly the Doctor felt himself being swept off his feet and fell backwards onto something soft. Before his eyes the TARDIS doors closed, the last image he saw was that of Faruuk being assimilated into the Dahaka. But, in one instance, before the door closed, he thought he saw the beast look at him and speak once more that chilling mantra.

"_etaf ruoy egnahc tonnac uoY!_"

At last all was silent. The Doctor then was pushed onto the floor. He looked and saw that he had fallen on the Empress. He rose to his feet, and then was suddenly slapped across his giant chin.

"I'm not quite sure I deserved that," he stated.

The Empress said nothing but walked over to the console of his TARDIS. She looked at it over and then back at the Doctor.

"Live out my last regeneration," she mused alive. "Or die so that I can live forever."

"Wait, your last regeneration?" he asked.

"I used all of my regeneration energy to keep myself from being destroyed when I created the Sands of Time within me, Doctor," she said. "I knew that eventually, I would meet my fate. But..." She paused. "Is it possible to change one's fate?"

"You know there are certain events that cannot be altered," the Doctor said.

"Hmph," she retorted. "And yet..." She paused, then looked back at the Doctor. "You mentioned a Prince. Surely not the Prince of Persia..."

"You know him already?"

"Of course," she replied. "He is the one who will kill me."

"So you're going to kill him instead," the Doctor replied. "Holding off the inevitab..." But the Empress placed her fingers upon his lips.

"There's something I want to know," she said.

"Knowledge isn't always power, you know," the Doctor added.

"This I know very well," she replied. "But I need to know what you know, to see what you have seen."

"Ah, yes," the Doctor said fondly, remembering fondly an old adventure in his third incarnation with his two older selves. "The old Timelord mind-meld." He closed his eyes and she closed hers, and he placed his hands upon her temple. When he moved his hand, she gasped.

"You see now?" he asked. "It's not always good to know what's coming next."

She swallowed hard. "Nevertheless, I will face my fate and accept the consequences of my actions. To whatever end."

The Doctor pulled a lever and the doors of the TARDIS opened. Beyond was the Empress' throne room, exactly as it had been when the Doctor first appeared. She turned to walk out, standing for a minute in the doorway, then smiling at the Doctor.

"Farewell, Doctor," she said.

"Until next time, Kaileena," he replied.

* * *

**(AN: I'm not done yet, not by a long shot. I've still got an amazing bit to tell in the next chapter.)  
**


	10. The Journey Begins

**(AN: One of the good things about timey wimey is that I can do things out of the order of "regular time", which is the curve-ball I threw you all in this last chapter.)**

**(Seriously, there was so much about the Empress' ending in _The Two Thrones_ that bespoke of Timelord, which is why I wanted to include her arc in this story. Now we have at last come to this part, the end of the beginning.)**

* * *

**The Journey Begins**

_London 2013_. The Doctor that sat outside of his TARDIS was a different man than the one who had ran with the Empress of Time and Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid. True, he had not regenerated and his face was exactly the same, but it was not the same. The Doctor was darker, sadder, grimmer and more broken-hearted. He had watched as the last of the Weeping Angels forever tore Amy and Rory out of his life and he stood there, powerless to stop it. Just as he had stood and watched Faruuk give his life for both of them and he had been powerless to stop it.

But he was an enigma, that much was certain. Just as much as the young Clara Oswald, out front of whose block he was now sitting. He defied everything the Doctor believed in and had shown him something worth discovering. Now he was gone, unlike Clara who had died, come back again, died and then come back again a third time. All things were secondary to the mystery of Clara, especially how Faruuk had said that if he had died, time would be undone and yet, it seemed, he had died and time wound on its course. Perhaps he had been wrong, the Doctor thought in the moments after leaving the Empress. He had been wrong about many things, so it only seemed appropriate that he would have been wrong about this as well.

"_Salaam_, Doctor," a familiar voice greeted. "You know, you're becoming harder to find these days."

The Doctor looked up and saw Faruuk standing there, clad in a heavy black trench-coat, uncharacteristic for this kind of weather - even in London - and for one who, but a year or so ago in the Doctor's time, had been dressed in the garb of the desert people. He held himself differently as well, which made the Doctor both proud and a bit surprised.

"Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid!" he greeted. "I can call you Faruuk, right? I don't want to have to call you all of that name, like Bannakaffalatta."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, nothing," the Doctor dismissed. "But you! You are something." He looked Faruuk over, pinching his cheek. "What happened to you? The last time I saw you, that thing..."

"The Dahaka is dead," Faruuk said. "It happened centuries ago, he cannot harm us."

"But he's one of the Reapers," the Doctor whispered. "They can't be killed, not even by the Water Sword."

"His power was greatly weakened," Faruuk continued. "But he could not kill me in the past. He realized that..."

"Let me guess, time flowed through you?"

Faruuk smiled. "You're learning, Doctor. And what of the Empress?"

"Oh, she's out there somewhere, exploring the universe," the Doctor said. "And what brings you to London?"

"You, Doctor," he said. "You never helped me with my question."

"Question? What question?" the Doctor replied. "You had quite a few questions when we first met and then there was the Empress and the...you know, and I'm quite positive that I've completely and utterly...forgotten your question."

"Who are the Death's Head?" Faruuk asked.

The Doctor paused, once more getting serious. "How do you know about the Death's Head?"

"I have had visions," Faruuk said.

"Visions, is it now?" the Doctor chuckled.

"I do not sleep," Faruuk began. "Therefore they were visions. I saw a group of men and women in black, welcoming me onward to the East. They called themselves the Death's Head. Do you know anything about them?"

"Oh yes," the Doctor said. "They were a group of monster hunters, protectors of humanity, predating Torchwood, UNIT and every other group as well. They were situated in...Georgia! Country, not the state. They existed as both a religious order and a secret society. Very secret, until the Nazis discovered them in World War II. The Fuhrer had them all wiped out and their castle destroyed." He then smiled.

"What, Doctor?"

"Don't even try to pull the wool over my eyes, Faruuk," the Doctor said confidently. "It's 2013, I know what's been going on. Yes, I did take a break into the 19th century, but I've been popping up around this young girl who lives in the house over there." He pointed to the house. "And even though we're not as remote as Georgia, the British news media have heard about the exploits of the Death's Head. Drying up the Danube, the Battle over Rome, the Star that Fell from the Sky. You know, I might have to intervene if you keep this up."

"I have not done these things yet," Faruuk said. "But you have shown me the proper direction. And for that, I thank you. _As-salamu alaykum_, Doctor."

"Farewell, Faruuk," the Doctor said with a smile. Faruuk turned with a wave of his long black trench coat, and began to walk away. Then he halted, forefinger raised, and walked back over to the Doctor.

"There was something, though," he said. "Something that concerns me, which I have had some time to think about since, well, you know."

"What's that?" the Doctor asked.

"You and I, Doctor," Faruuk began. "We are opposites. My faith and your reason can never meet again as it did on the Island of Time. But you, who plays God with the lives of so many: why didn't you try to stop me?"

"Try to stop you? What do you mean?"

"I thought you would have tried to kill me," Faruuk said. "Or at least wrest control of the Vortex out of my hand. Why didn't you?"

"I don't know," the Doctor replied. "Sometimes, a sad old man gets tired of fighting battles all of his days. Maybe there was something I saw in you specifically, Faruuk, that I liked. If there's anyone who I would trust to be what you are - the new Guardian of the Time Vortex - it would be you. Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid: the Epoch of the Universe. Time flows through him as though water."

"Epoch, I like that," Faruuk smiled.

"Before you go," the Doctor said, rising to his feet. "There is something I should tell you, though."

"What is that?" he asked, halting in his tracks.

"Terre Haute," the Doctor said. "Indiana."

"Why is that important?" Faruuk asked.

"You'll know," the Doctor replied with a sly wink.

Faruuk ibin al'Mayhiid turned about, walking slowly down the street before disappearing in a crowd. Whether or not he had actually disappeared or how that had happened, the Doctor could not guess. He looked up at the skies, bright and lit in the light of the sun, Sol as the Timelords called it. There were still many hours before Clara would come around, if she ever did. The Doctor, meanwhile, could continue looking up into the sky. At last it appeared, like a haze of light as it reflects off a shower of gold high in the sky. The Doctor smiled at this. Though, again, he was the Last of the Timelords, he had given Empress Kalieena the chance to explore the universe for all eternity, free of the fear of dying in between regenerations. Though, technically, she had indeed died - at the hands of an unnamed Indian vizir, wielding that clever blue dagger - she had transcended life. Rassilon's Ultimate Sanction had been passed, but not as a final solution, as he had envisioned it. The Doctor was happy: for once, everyone lived.

* * *

**(AN: And we can call that the end of Faruuk "Epoch" ibin al'Mayhiid's beginning. We will see him again in _A World of Light_, to be posted on _FictionPress_, as well as the main _Death's Head_ story as well, once that gets off to a relatively good start. I'm glad at least someone liked this story. More about his past and exactly what "the burden of God" is will be revealed in the main story. Nevertheless, thank you for the reviews and I hope to see you reviewing my other stories some time in the near future.)**


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